Hi CTRA/All,

Recently, I've been working on my CTRA Licence in the 'Race 1' server. It took me ages to get rewarded the bronze licence. I was wondering if you would be able to let the Bronze licenced drivers to get into the 'Race 2' server?

After doing some homework, it seems that i have a lot of work to do to get my next licence upgrade (silver) which will then allow me to jump straight into 'race 3'. That will skip the 'Race 2' server all together.

I understand that this may cause a lot of work but i think it seems reasonable.

Any feedback is much appreciated!

Thanks
Pete

Sorry Pete but nope, it's not happening. There are very good reasons why you have to race hard and long to reach Silver licence and TBO class racing in the CTRA. Those reasons are as solid today as they ever were.

Quote from SamH :

Sorry Pete but nope, it's not happening. There are very good reasons why you have to race hard and long to reach Silver licence and TBO class racing in the CTRA. Those reasons are as solid today as they ever were.

Cool! I'll keep cracking on. Thanks

I promise, you'll be a better tin-top driver for it!

Get in Single Seater 1 as well, there is a lot of good racing to be had there and I usually swap between open wheel and tin tops to avoid boredom of a particular format.

lol, I think pete's quite familiar with the SS servers.

On a related note, isn't the UF-BR server supposed to be for Bronze licensed racers? The UFBR season is over now... so surely it should be switched back from Entry level to Bronze..

Or have I missed the UF-BR server becoming an Entry level server for good?

Quote from JohnnyFX :

lol, I think pete's quite familiar with the SS servers.

Yeah, a bit too familar lol

Also i think the UF-BR is open to all now which is a good idea. Its a lot cleaner in there than race 1 for some strange reason. If you check my stats every time i enter race 1 my yellow flag avg shots up over triple which is a bit of a bummer.

As Sam said tho (and i believe him) that it will help me drive a lil bit better in the tin-tops. It's just a shame that i will jump straight in to "race 3" from "race 1" - if and when i get rewarded a silver licence.

Quote from peterules :

Also i think the UF-BR is open to all now which is a good idea. Its a lot cleaner in there than race 1 for some strange reason.

Yep, and accidents don't have the disastrous consequences which are common with single seaters

Quote from NightShift :

Yep, and accidents don't have the disastrous consequences which are common with single seaters

For some reason its in race 1 that gets me all the disastrous accidents, i either end up understeering into a barrier and getting flipped 900 feet in the air or i hit a kerb and end up being a stunt man on 2 wheels

N.b - i'm not that much of a bad driver really lol

Quote from JO53PHS :

On a related note, isn't the UF-BR server supposed to be for Bronze licensed racers? The UFBR season is over now... so surely it should be switched back from Entry level to Bronze..

UF-BR turned into a nasty crashfest yersterday. Making it bronze again would certainly have my vote

Quote from Joris :

UF-BR turned into a nasty crashfest yersterday. Making it bronze again would certainly have my vote

I second that!

but its emtpy often even now with copperlvl.
So i dont think therell be much ppl driving then.

Quote from Joris :

UF-BR turned into a nasty crashfest yersterday.

Must be a problem with fridays, I was on SS1 yesterday and I only managed to go through one clean race. Gezmoor was on too and he left after a massive pile up before the chicane on SO6.

I gave up at BL1 when a guy botched a pass on the outside and made contact with a car which was deliberately braking to let him pass; bottom line: his car took off, making the other car spin and slamming my car out of the track on landing. Not to mention the same guy had a habit of bump and stealing while passing on the inside.

Rants apart I agree that BR should be kept open to all as it is now.

Quote from VoiD :

I second that!

+1 for that from me too. Seen a definite drop in quality of racing since it was opened up.

Quote from NightShift :

Must be a problem with fridays, I was on SS1 yesterday and I only managed to go through one clean race. Gezmoor was on too and he left after a massive pile up before the chicane on SO6.

Wow I'm famous !

Seriously though, this is the reason I stay off the servers most of the time when they're very popular. I've found that once there's more than about 8 people in a race it's almost impossible to get a clean race. Of course there are times when this doesn't happen but as general rule of thumb it's pretty good.

My ISP is also messing me around at the moment and I keep getting disconnected during "peak" hours.

So for the reasons above I pretty much restrict most of my time on the servers to am/early afternoon during the weekdays.

Quote from gezmoor :

Wow I'm famous !

"Jesus this server is full of crashers" along these lines, was it? I couldn't avoid noticing you, it's quite uncommon for me to see forum dwellers online except maybe for Race3.

Quote from gezmoor :

Seriously though, this is the reason I stay off the servers most of the time when they're very popular.

I'm a bit wary of choke-full servers and usually prefer to join when there are about 10 drivers; in fact I was tempted to join UF-BR (then at 13 connections vs the 25+ of SS1) but eventually went with SS1 just because I'm still halfway to Nat B.

Joining a server in those conditions is, I fear, just the perfect way to have your yellow flags skyrocket because of all the contacts and crashing, while having a hard time to bring home nary a point - at least for slowpokes like me which plod along midfield if they're lucky

Quote from NightShift :

"Jesus this server is full of crashers" along these lines, was it? I couldn't avoid noticing you, it's quite uncommon for me to see forum dwellers online except maybe for Race3.

Ahh yes I think I remember that !

Quote :

Joining a server in those conditions is, I fear, just the perfect way to have your yellow flags skyrocket because of all the contacts and crashing, while having a hard time to bring home nary a point - at least for slowpokes like me which plod along midfield if they're lucky

Join the club, exactly the position I'm in. It's easy for the fast guys they can just run off in to the distance and keep out of it all. Us mere mortals have to deal with the rammers and last minute up the inside dive bombers ruining our races and chances of getting points. As well as ruining our stats of course

Quote from NightShift :

Joining a server in those conditions is, I fear, just the perfect way to have your yellow flags skyrocket (...)

Quote from gezmoor :

(...) As well as ruining our stats of course

That's the downside of CTRA's incredible stats system Everytime you get caught up in an incident through no fault of your own you immediately think "Damn it! Another one added to my yellow flag count!". Or you get flipped over - either by your own fault or someone else's - and you think "Damn it! Not good for my finished races ratio!".

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm living with the nightmare of my ruined stats - they suck already

We all make mistakes and race accidents happen, but some people seem to make it a point of honor to take stupid risks, grossly overestimating their ability to cope with changing race conditions.

Me, I try to avoid a crash whenever possible even if this means losing some positions. If I make a stupid mistake and can't avoid the crash, I apologize and try to give the position back.

Oh wait, is this the expected behavior? but I seldomly see it happening on a crowded server. Some smarta**, when confronted, even goes as far as explaining publicly their petty reasons for not giving the place back

Quote from obsolum :

That's the downside of CTRA's incredible stats system Everytime you get caught up in an incident through no fault of your own you immediately think "Damn it! Another one added to my yellow flag count!". Or you get flipped over - either by your own fault or someone else's - and you think "Damn it! Not good for my finished races ratio!".

Well it would be good I suppose to have better stats, (I'm more interested in the % race finishes than anything else to be honest), but I don't really worry about them. After all I've seen first hand the behaviour of some drivers that have great stats and to say they're dirty would be an understatement. I've also noticed that a fair few of the permanently or temporarily banned members also have "above average" stats, so it's clear that they may be quick but have absolutely no manners or race craft.

To me this proves that actually the stats system as it works at the moment doesn't give any true indication of how clean (or good) a racer someone is, just that they are quicker than "the pack" and able to stay away from the pitfalls that may entail.

I'll be the first to admit that my stats are pretty poor and that no matter what they don't seem to improve. That's because I'm just not that great at this game. I'm not a big game player, (even when i was a teen I didn't spend much time playing games), and sometimes on LFS I have bad days where I just can't get in to the groove. I put it down to not very good judgement and the occasional incident which I'll admit to being my fault. But the point being, I never intend to ram someone or spin them off the road, I try my best to avoid contact where I can.

A fair bit of the problem is also that I drive in real life and LFS is nothing like driving a real car, so all my instincitive driving behaviour isn't brought in to play because there is none of the feedback that you get from actually being in a car drivng down the road. Notably a true sense of speed or danger, or any g forces or seat of the pants judgement. I rely on these things when driving in real life. The FF through the wheel in LFS just isn't enough feedback for me so I find it nearly impossible to actually judge where "the limit" is for the cars in the game. I'm either someway under it, (hence my mid pack pace), or someway over it, (hence my poor stats).

But none of it bothers me really, I just use LFS to pass the time and as a break from job hunting.

Quote from gezmoor :

A fair bit of the problem is also that I drive in real life and LFS is nothing like driving a real car,

So true, I remember when I first tried LFS with the XF I was expecting to have little problems since I drove similar cars everyday for years on end. Hell I couldn't keep it in a corner, then I noticed the speedo and then it was all pretty clear. I ditched the XFG altogether cos it wasn't giving me the right feeling of speed and learnt to love the FBM instead.

Now I have a G25 but the wheel gives me absolutely no clue about the speed, despite the lack of power steering in the simulated cars. It feels so strange since everybody is singing songs about how good the FFB is in LFS, sometimes I would wonder whether my wheel was broken.

I tried nKp and it's a little better, at least there you have an indication that the tyre is losing grip and starting to slide. In LFS it feels pretty much the same, unless you're losing the tail.

Back on topic, what works for me is looking for servers where opposition is more or less the same level (better choose the ones with faster people than the other way round though), and/or join when there 10 drivers or less, usually that means a lot less reckless drivers. That way I'm closer to my true yellow flag rate which is around 10-15% if I have any confidence with the combo. Another thing I try to do is alternating offline hotlapping on the combos you're going to race (easy if you're always on the same servers), with online sessions. Each one thing let me learn different things, but it's a safe way to learn or refresh your 'driving memory' and avoid most tragic mistakes (e.g. think of different track configurations)